


Loss of Innocence

by phoenixnz



Series: Nightwing Chronicles [4]
Category: Batman - Fandom, DCU, Smallville
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-09 23:58:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6929620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixnz/pseuds/phoenixnz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce recovers from the pneumonia but still has a lot of emotional recovery ahead</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loss of Innocence

**Author's Note:**

> This will be a series, with each one-shot an episode in the series. It is very AU. Clark is only three years younger than Lex and four years younger than Bruce.

Bruce hated feeling vulnerable. He hated feeling vulnerable in front of Lex even more. He’d spent most of the last ten years trying to keep a stoic demeanour, but clearly when it came to Lex and Clark he was never going to be very convincing.

He’d spent most of his days since he’d got back from the hospital in Thimpu in bed, refusing to get out even when Alfred tried to tell him he was at least well enough to get a little exercise.

He would lay in bed, thinking about those months in the prison, the dark depression that had overwhelmed him at times. He’d thought about the times he’d spent with Lex and Clark, wishing he could just go back to those more innocent days.

Yet as soon as he saw Lex when his friend came to Gotham for Christmas, Bruce couldn’t help pushing him away.

He had been expecting Alfred when he heard the knock on his door, a couple of days before Christmas and was surprised to see Lex coming in with a tray.

“Oh, it’s you,” he said, trying to keep his tone neutral.

Lex smiled briefly as he came in and set the tray down on the nightstand. “Who else would it be?” he responded. “Alfred made you some tea.”

Bruce scowled at him. “Don’t want any.”

He glared at Lex, who just regarded him mildly. He could see the concern in his friend’s eyes, but wasn’t going to encourage any sympathy from the younger man. He continued to lay in the bed, pretending Lex’s scrutiny didn’t bother him.

Lex sat on the bed.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Bruce said, turning away from him, wishing Lex would just go away.

“Bruce …”

He turned his head to glare at his friend.

“Forget it, all right?” he snapped. “I didn’t ask you to come down here.”

“I came because I care about you, you jerk!”

He deserved that, he thought. He was a jerk. He just couldn’t understand, after the way he had walked out on both Lex and Clark, that they could care so much about him they would turn Asia upside down looking for him, and then save his life.

“Why?”

Lex looked both pissed and confused by the question.

“Come on, Bruce,” he said, sounding angry. “How long have we known each other? If it hadn’t been for you, I might have ended up dead of some drug overdose, or face down in some back alley with a bullet in my head. I love you, dumbass. Why the hell do you think I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to find you? I need you. What I don’t get is why you had to run out on me. And Clark.”

Bruce understood most of it, but it still wasn’t that simple. Lex didn’t know what it was like to lose both his parents so violently and so suddenly. To know that there would be no justice for them. The man who had pulled the trigger might be dead, but someone else had got away with murder.

Lex had lived a life of privilege, despite his asshole of a father and as for Clark, while his birth parents were long gone, he had no memory of them. He’d been raised by two amazing people who loved him no matter what.

He wanted to tell Lex that, but instead, just turned his head away, not willing to see his friend’s face.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“What wouldn’t I understand? I get it, Bruce. You got a bee in your bonnet. You figured the only way to beat guys like Falcone was to get down in the dirt with them. Well, you did. You got yourself real dirty and almost died for it! That’s what I understand.”

Bruce stared at him, wondering if that was really how Lex saw the last few months. He realised something. Lex was right. Falcone had told him he’d sat up in his ivory tower, pretending he was no better than the average man on the street. Instead, he’d got his ass kicked to the kerb. He’d gone away in the hope that he could someday use what he’d learned to get the justice his parents needed, but instead, he’d come close to dying himself.

His eyes filled with tears, both of rage and frustration, and of grief. Nothing had changed. He’d lost almost everything. Those months in Asia hadn’t taught him a damn thing about his own life of privilege. Except he was no longer the innocent boy he once was. The boy who had stupidly thought of nothing else but revenge from the moment he’d learned the identity of the man who had killed his parents.

The boy who had been so idealistic was long gone.

As he began to sob, he felt Lex’s arms wrap around him. He let his friend hold him until he exhausted himself.

He woke later to find Lex curled up, sleeping in the bed beside him. He gazed down at his friend, realising for the first time in weeks that he was actually feeling a little better. As if releasing those pent-up emotions had done some good after all.

He rolled out of bed, his stomach rumbling. For weeks he’d had little appetite, but it looked like that was changing as well. Grabbing a robe, he put it on and left the bedroom, going downstairs.

“Master Bruce?”

He looked up and offered his butler/guardian a small smile.

“Alfred.”

The older man looked surprised to see him.

“I’m happy to see you up and about, sir,” Alfred replied.

“Thanks Alfred. Uh, I was actually feeling a little hungry.”

“Well, I can whip you up some sandwiches if you like, or perhaps some soup?”

“Some soup would be great,” he said, feeling his stomach rumbling once again. “I’ll join you in the kitchen.”

He followed the older man downstairs and sat at the table while Alfred heated some vegetable soup. He put a couple of bread rolls in the oven to warm as he waited for the soup, then looked at Bruce.

“How are you feeling Master Bruce?”

“Actually a little better, Alfred.” His lungs felt clearer than they had in weeks, although he was still not quite up to any kind of a workout.

“I must say, you are looking much healthier. We have all been very concerned about you.”

“I’m sorry to have worried you,” Bruce replied as Alfred took the soup off the stove and used the ladle to serve it in a bowl. The aroma of the chopped vegetables in the broth drifted up and he sniffed it appreciatively.

“Eat it slowly, Master Bruce. You have been on a restricted diet for some time.”

He nodded, knowing all of this, but indulging the older man anyway.

Lex came in as he was dipping a warmed bread roll in the soup.

“Hey,” Lex smiled.

“Hey yourself,” Bruce replied. “Alfred heated up some soup if you’d like some.”

“Mm, that smells really good. Alfred?”

Clearly the butler had anticipated it and placed a bowl of soup in front of Lex. His friend looked at him with a gentle smile and began to eat his own soup.

Over the next few days, Bruce spent a little time walking around the manor, trying to rebuild his stamina. The pneumonia had taken a lot out of him and he knew he wouldn’t be up to much in the way of exertion. Alfred had put his foot down when Bruce had suggested a walk outside, telling him it was far too cold to be out in the snow and he had no wish for Bruce to have a relapse.

Christmas Day passed quietly. Lex gave him a small gift - a watch his friend had had engraved. Clark had given him a book for his library. While it wasn’t a classic it was still one he’d told his friend he’d enjoyed as a child.

Two days after Christmas, he and Lex were sitting in the library, just talking. Lex was telling him his idea about creating some kind of costume and going out to help people.

“What about your dad?” Bruce asked. “I thought he wanted you to go to work for him after you finished college?”

“Yeah, he does,” Lex nodded. “To be honest, I’m not sure what to do about that. I don’t want to work for Luthorcorp.”

“Is there a way you could maybe compromise?” Bruce suggested. “Like, say, run the plant in Smallville for your dad until you can build up enough of your own resources to strike out on your own?”

Lex looked thoughtful. “That might work.” He studied Bruce for a moment. “What about you? Are you going back to Princeton?”

Bruce shook his head. “I thought about it, but I don’t really want to go back to school. I don’t want to run Wayne Enterprises either.”

“I think Bill Earle might have something to say about that anyway,” Lex said. “Didn’t Alfred say something about Bill wanting to take the company public?”

Bruce nodded. His father would have been firmly against the idea. The company had been owned by the family for generations, having been built by a Wayne from the ground up. He had a suspicion that Earle had reasons of his own for wanting to change the company structure, and it had little to do with the public good.

The few times he’d met Earle, the man had treated him like a five year old. Still, as much as he disliked the older man, running the company wasn’t what he wanted to do.

Lex’s own idea had given him one of his own. As soon as he was fit enough, he was going to start putting his plan into action.

Alfred came in, followed by a visitor. Lex grinned as Clark came in, practically bounding like an overgrown puppy.

“Bruce!” he exclaimed joyfully, moving to hug him effusively.

“Easy, Clark. Bruce is still recuperating,” Lex admonished gently.

Bruce submitted to the hug, tousling the teen’s hair.

“You’re like a big puppy dog,” he said, laughing as Clark proceeded to whine like one. “Comedian.”

Clark sprawled on the floor at his feet.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better, Bruce. I missed you.”

“I missed you too, Clark,” he replied, feeling warmth spread through him at the broad grin the younger man gave him.

He still remembered the fantasy he’d had while in prison, feeling his cock twitch at the memory. While he wasn’t up to any sexual hi-jinks yet he was determined that he would get to try it.

Soon, he thought. 


End file.
